Liberals open party to ‘supporters’ one year after election loss

One year after it slipped to third party status in the House of Commons, the Liberal party made an attempt to broaden their base.

The Liberals introduced their new “supporter” category Wednesday – a designation for people who want to be able to vote in leadership elections, but won’t have to actually pay to be a full member of the party.

“We could have played it safe… but we realized that we had a chance to make a real difference in how our party organizes itself and how we move forward,” interim Liberal leader Bob Rae told a crowd gathered at the Ottawa Convention Centre Wednesday morning. It was the same venue where the party held its biennial convention in January.

The date is a somber one for the Liberal party, which dropped from 77 seats in the House to 35, and is now in danger of seeing its centrist votes drift further toward the New Democrats under that party’s new leader, Thomas Mulcair.

Recent polls have put national support for the NDP almost even with the Conservatives.

However, Rae said, Mulcair should not be too quick to read too much into that.

“Listening to what I heard Mr. Mulcair say, you might have thought well actually they think they won the election,” Rae said. “Well, I’m sorry, the NDP didn’t win the election. Mr. Harper won the election. He won a majority.”

Given that fact, Rae said, “it doesn’t really matter who’s second or who’s in third or who’s in fourth or fifth. We’re all in opposition.”

Earlier Wednesday, the prime minister spoke to his caucus, saying that the mandate the party had received from Canadians was “to do one thing, one thing above all else,” – to secure long-term prosperity. This, Harper said, “we are doing.”

Rae had a different take on the Conservative economic record so far.

“If you were born on third base, it’s a big mistake to think you hit a triple,” he said. “Mr. Harper’s economic record is not exactly fantastic. He took a $13 billion surplus and even before the recession started, he turned it into a deficit because of over-spending.”

Now, he said, the brakes are being applied “in a very dramatic way” through cuts to seniors, health and the environment.

Reporters also asked Rae about his intentions to run for permanent Liberal leadership, but he was reluctant to give many details.

Party president Mike Crawley said the party’s board will meet in early June to discuss whether the interim leader can contest the permanent leadership and to narrow the date as to when the actual vote will be.

“I think it’s better that everybody just relax and look at the situation realistically,” Rae said. “The board is going to make a decision and then we’ll see whether or not I have to make a decision as well.”